Reciprocal Imitation: Toward a Neural Basis of Social Interaction

Abstract

Social interaction is a coregulated coupling activity that involves at least 2 autonomous agents. Numerous methodological and technical challenges impede the production of natural social interaction within an Magnetic Resonance Imaging environment under controlled conditions. To overcome the obstacle, we chose a simple format of social interaction, namely "interactive imitation" through a double-video system. We registered blood oxygen level-dependent activity of 23 participants during 2 imitative conditions: free (F) and instructed (I) episodes of imitating (i) and of being imitated (bi). In addition to the areas classically reported in instructed imitation tasks, 2 activation patterns were found, which differentiate the subconditions. Firstly, brain areas involved during decisional and attentional processes (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex , dorsal part of anterior cingulate gyrus [dACC], pre-SMA) were activated during all conditions except for instructed imitation-classically used in neuroimaging studies of imitation. Second, a greater activation in dACC and insula combined with an increased deactivation in the default mode network was observed when subjects were imitated compared with when they imitated. We suggest that these 2 patterns reflect the anticipation of the other's behavior and the engagement with others required by social interaction.

Does imitation act as an oxytocin nebulizer in autism spectrum disorder?

“…The design of that study consisted of an innovative functional MRI set-up that enabled behavioural and brain recordings to be synchronized during online imitative interaction. We replicated previous findings demonstrating the existence of an imitative neural network (Iacoboni et al, 1999), and most importantly revealed the involvement of the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex and other regions in social anticipation and adjustment when free reciprocal imitation is in play (Guionnet et al, 2012). Further, we showed that imitating and being imitated activate similar brain areas.…”

“…Our procedure was inspired by our previous study conducted with typical adults (Guionnet et al, 2012). The design of that study consisted of an innovative functional MRI set-up that enabled behavioural and brain recordings to be synchronized during online imitative interaction.…”

“…In the MRI environment, the imitation task was inspired by the one used in the study by Guionnet et al (2012) and required simple hand gestures from participants. The task required a specific set-up composed of a doublevideo system allowing visual capture of the other's hand movements.…”

Frontal alpha oscillations distinguish leaders from followers: Multivariate decoding of mutually interacting brains

“…leaders) of action in reciprocal imitation paradigms in both interactive (Dumas et al, 2012, Guionnet et al, 2012) and non-interactive scenarios (Decety et al, 2002). These studies have shown activation of the inferior parietal cortex during initiation and imitation of stimuli, in the absence of interaction (Decety et al, 2002), as well as recruitment of fronto-parietal regions during interactive imitation (Guionnet et al, 2012). In contrast to these studies, the aim of the current study was to develop a two-brain analysis, which uses data from both brains to uncover the complementary neural mechanisms of spontaneous leaderfollower dyads in a tightly-coupled coordinative task.…”

Computational and neurobiological foundations of leadership decisions

“…Finally, the key estimate of the probability of leading generated from our combined PT and optimal categorization model correlated with activity in the Anterior Insula (aIns), a well-established integration hub proposed to combine internal and external states, together with estimated option values, to inform choice (60,61,(115)(116)(117)(118)(119).…”